Charging ipod via Firewire

For all intents and purposes, yes. However the difference should be pretty marginal. USB 2.0 has a higher claimed speed but FireWire handles power separately so is faster in real life AFAIK. The difference is particularly noticeable over time, as the cables heat up.

I'm not positive but I think it'll only charge if the PowerBook is plugged into the mains power. I know desktops can charge in their sleep, but I'm not positive about laptops, sorry.

 

Probably no point in calling them about it. Someone here will know for certain.

Although you can't feel it, the cables warm up during transfer resulting in a slightly slower connection. Since the FireWire has a separate power connection and the biggest culprit in heating things up is power, the USB cable is less susceptible to slow down over time for large transfers. Of course, in practice the difference is marginal at the most. Nothing to worry about really.

Nevertheless, if given a choice I always use FireWire over USB. I find it to be a little bit faster.

 

Yes, I do this all the time, provided the powerbook is plugged in to the mains. I'm not 100% sure this applies to every powerbook - mine is a 1.5GHz 17 inch.

Annoyingly, this doesn't work with the USB2 connection

 

On laptops you can dim the screen to the point where it may as well be asleep. Just use the dim button (F1 on my iBook) until it looks black. The screen is still on and will remain so until the Energy Saver settings kick in but the for all intents and purposes, this is perfectly adequate and safe.

Sweet, I thought so.

 

Rather than creating a new thread.
I have the firewire cable and power brick from my 3G Ipod.
Can I use that to charge my 5G? (When the ^#@! gets there that is)

 

To the best of my knowledge it'll charge but not sync.

 

There are a couple of freeware apps out there that activate sleep when you run the application or allow you to trigger it from the menu bar. A google search should find them.